Choosing Plants for Your Aquarium
2008-08-20

Choosing Plants for Your Aquarium

Most hobbyists are quite naturally drawn to making their aquarium look as natural as possible. Adding plants is one of the better ways to make your aquarium look stunning. Plants have some obvious advantages when it comes to looks as well as use. In principle, there are two kinds of plant you can choose for your tank: the live ones and the fake ones such as plastic plant. Do you really have to choose between live plants and plastic plants for your aquarium decoration? Does it really make a difference? In short, yes. There are no doubt differences between these two ones. Although the differences between them are easily told apart, not everyone knows clearly.

Advantages ? disadvantages of live plant and plastic plants Every coin has two sides, you should be aware of this before you decide whether you want to keep live or plastic plants in your aquarium. 

1) live plants On one hand, live plants add beauty, help keep the nitrate levels in your tank down by absorbing toxins and keep your fish healthy between water changes by exchanging carbon dioxide for oxygen. Your aquarium fish enjoy a more natural aquarium setting, and it makes them healthier and their water more balanced. It is a proven fact that well-maintained, fully or partially planted tanks require less chemical filtration and intervention than tanks with only plastic plants.

On the other hand, natural plants have some inherent negative aspects. Live plants need to be maintained, nurtured and propagated. Dead and decaying parts will need to be pruned and cut off regularly. Real plants may also introduce snails and hydra into your water and they can be the transmitter of fish infections too. If your fish love to nibble on the plants that you have decided to put in, you will have a hard time keeping these plants alive. Real plants require some particular kinds of nutrients. That means you will have to go in for a particular combination of materials in your substrate. When the substrate becomes old, you will have to change it or fertilize it. A planted aquarium with real plants generally needs more light than a fish-only aquarium for your plants needing it to generate oxygen. What’s more, some fish find certain types of plants to be a delicious snack, which is dangerous to your fish.

2) Plastic plants We all know plastic plants have no functions such as manufacturing oxygen as live ones do. And they may also aren’t able to make your tank looks so reality as you wished; sometimes, they may cause some problems for much plastic has poison. However, plastic ones also have advantages that live ones don’t have. With plastic plants in the tanks it allows the tank water to remain clearer, more picturesque, and therefore more pleasing to the eyes; there's a much larger variety of shapes, sizes, colors and types of plants to choose from, as well as a wide range of prices; the fake plants allow you to change the scenery with ease, maintain the tank's environment with less hassle and display themselves in a wide range of fashions/availabilities. In addition, fake plants are of course much easier to keep. If you do not have that much of time for the aquarium just at the moment, going in for fake plants may be your better choice. And hopefully, your fish will not develop a taste for it and you will be more reassuring.

Choose the right plants for yourself So which is right for you, plastic or live plants? The answer to this question has everything to do with the kind of person you are. Are you the type of person who would be willing to do the extra work and research needed to keep a tank full of live plants, or would you be happier with a low-maintenance alternative that is, perhaps, somewhat less spectacular? Ask yourself this question; if it were practical to do so, would you replace your lawn with Astroturf? It would be perpetually green and would never need mowing, watering, or weeding. If this idea appeals to you, then a tank full of live plants is probably not for you. You may consider this an extreme example. Then consider this question; do you prefer live plants in home decorating, or silk and plastic alternatives? If the idea of a plastic plant in your home repulses you, then you might be a good candidate for keeping live plants in your aquarium rather than plastic. You will notice the difference, and so will your fish.